Calcutta Communal Riots OR The Great Calcutta Killings - Aug 1946

Corpses lying among pieces of wood in preparation for cremation after the riots
(Image Source - Life Archive)

Direct Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a day of widespread riot and manslaughter between Hindus & Muslims in Calcutta. In those days the situation in Bengal was complex. In Bengal, Muslims represented the majority of the population. As a result of this province was the only one in which a Muslim League Government was in power.

Corpse of a man seen through a wheel of a cart on its way to be cremated after the riots.
(Image Source - Life Archive)

The Muslim League and the Congress were the two largest political parties in the Constituent Assembly of India in the 1940s. The 1946 Cabinet Mission Plan proposed the transfer of power from the British Raj to the Indian leadership. However, soon an alternative plan to divide the British Raj into a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan was proposed by the Muslim League. The Congress rejected the alternative proposal outright. The Muslim League leader MA Jinnah planned a general strike (hartal) on 16 August, terming it as Direct Action Day, to protest this rejection and assert its demand for a separate Muslim homeland. KS Roy, a leader of the Congress Party called on Hindu shopkeepers to keep their businesses open in defiance of the hartal.

Vultures feeding on corpses lying abandoned in alleyway after the riots
(Image Source - Life Archive)

Troubles started on the morning of the 16 Aug. Police Headquarters had reported that there was excitement throughout the city, that shops were being forced to close, and that there were many reports of brawls, stabbing and throwing of stones and brickbats. There were reports of lorries (trucks) that came down carrying Muslim men armed with brickbats and bottles and attacking Hindu-owned shops. Hindus and Sikhs were just as fierce as the Muslims. Parties of one community would lie in wait, and as soon as they caught one of the other community, they would cut him to pieces. Skirmishes between the communities continued for almost a week. Finally, on 21 August, Bengal was put under Viceroy's rule. The rioting reduced on 22 Aug.

Men unloading corpses from truck in preparation for cremation after the riots.
(Image Source - Life Archive)

More than 4000 people lost their lives and 100,000 residents were left homeless in Calcutta within 72 hours.

These events sowed the seeds for the eventual Partition of India.